Mp3 Players

[Bucket]

I went a different option all together...a Sony PSP with a 1Gb Memory Card in it Games, Movies, Music, WiFi Internet (where available) all on the go plus its got a HD LCD Screen

[42.57lb]

Originally Posted by DJL351

Couldn't, wouldn't touch an Ipod..... in a word Apple
I have two that I have to sort out almost weekly.
Software bugs, spyware from sites they download from, computer hang while transfering songs.... <sigh>

Just remember, while colour screens and that look great, they kill battery life.

Each to their own. :dj:

D

DUDE!!! what macs are you running? You're having problems with software bugs etc? what software are you using that's all buggy? As for having a mac hang while tranferring song, that's the weirdest thing I've ever heard??!?!?! Time for a MacBook Pro I'd say, that'll cheer you up!

[42.57lb]

Oh and Ipods are the best!!! Taken mine around the world, it's been very well behaved, only problem is all the scratches I put on it from not looking after the poor thing proper!

[BlueRaven]

This is a very interesting topic actually.

We went in the market last month for an hard disk based mp3 player and chose a 20gb Creative Zen. I already had an interest in Creative players, as my original 128mb player was fantastic - and I respect Creative as a company, being the main company in PC Audio for over 14(?) years.

We went to several Harvey Normans and all of the sales staff said to avoid IPOD. Two different Harvey Normans and 5 sales staff all said that they have have issues with IPODs. Everyone recommended a Zen.

It comes down to a few points. The Ipod has a great range of accessories, but is prone to failure. It is known to have lockups, battery issues, screen issues and they wear fairly easily. Out of the box it uses itunes. I heard that if you plug an ipod into another computer that doesnt have the same music on it, it will remove the content on the ipod? The popular concern about Ipods is that you cannot replace the battery.

I heard that iRivers were fairly good, however the OS was still a bit buggy and that they are expensive. One sales person said that they would deffinatly choose them if the next model fixed some of the bugs.

The creative Zen runs on any version of Windows. It does not run on Linux or Apple out of the box, however aftermarket software is available. Apart from the sliding power button, it has no moving buttons, ie - it has a complete touch pad interface. This is ideal as it means less wear. It has a mono screen and does not support photos - we didnt have a problem with this as we saw no use for it. The sound is considered slightly better than Ipods. The batter can be removed (by unscrewing) and harvey norman will order a new battery for you.

The Creative Zen micro or microphoto are a good deal smaller and come in 5 or 8gig sizes. The software is near identical to the Zen (the big brother), with the exception of the microphoto allowing images. They aren't that much cheaper than the Zen, so if you want lots of space the Zen is the better choice. The one thing they do have, which is REALLY cool - is that like a phone, the battery can be replaced easily. Harvey Norman stocked replacement batteries, so you could spend the extra 50 dollars or so and run the unit on another battery for those long trips.

So my recommendation is a Zen player.

[Mark351]

I have a 256Mb iRiver. Plays mp3, wma and ogg vorbis. As Blue Freak says, runs a AA battery, and I get 60+ hours out of a single Energizer Lithum. Sound is very good. I'll never have with proprietary formats, internal batteries failing, etc. I'll listen to 6-7 albums on it at one time, then refrsh the whole player with 6-7 different ones. Acts like a USB key when plugged in, so easy to copy over tunes.

Thinking of getting a PSP one day, but for music this thing suits me perfectly.

[MrSparkle]

Originally Posted by BlueRaven

The Ipod has a great range of accessories, but is prone to failure. It is known to have lockups, battery issues, screen issues and they wear fairly easily. Out of the box it uses itunes. I heard that if you plug an ipod into another computer that doesnt have the same music on it, it will remove the content on the ipod? The popular concern about Ipods is that you cannot replace the battery.

Hmm I might have to take mine back as obviously something is wrong with it - it works perfectly! Going on what you're saying, it should NOT! e

Seriously, for others reading the thread, don't follow this example and go listening and preaching the words of a Harvey Norman sales rep. Go and spend time on user forum sites (ie. people who have knowledge and experience of the unit), read extensively about the unit from as many sources as you can, go and play with one in a store, and repeat the process for any and all competition. Only then should you even THINK about handing over $$$.

It doesn't really matter if you're spending a small amount of cash on a cheap unit but if you give 2 forks about what you're getting it pays to do your own thinking. :

For the kneejerk crowd, I will add here that I investigated the Creative units as part of my research and they were a contender, but ultimately didn't win it for me on price. Their quality was great in terms of build and audio.

[blueoval]

Originally Posted by MrSparkle

....Seriously, for others reading the thread, don't follow this example and go listening and preaching the words of a Harvey Norman sales rep. Go and spend time on user forum sites (ie. people who have knowledge and experience of the unit), read extensively about the unit from as many sources as you can, go and play with one in a store, and repeat the process for any and all competition. Only then should you even THINK about handing over $$$.

It doesn't really matter if you're spending a small amount of cash on a cheap unit but if you give 2 forks about what you're getting it pays to do your own thinking. : .....

I agree with ya there MrSparkles!. Do the research and make up your OWN mind on what YOU think is best. :Reverend:

[Mr Cube]

Definatly some good advise on here guys thanks for that... Im starting to sway towards the iPod even more now.. Great buys for them on eBay, I will ket you guys know how I go with it

[Venomous]

Hey There,
Two years ago (About) i brought a 3G Ipod, loved it to bits, although as all ipods, got a bit scratched, nothing ever went wrong with it, battery held its charge like new (even did when i sold it) was perfect. Then for christmas i decided to buy myself a present and get a 5G 30gig Video Ipod. And i love it just as much, this one came with a slidy in case thats fine, and keeps most scractches off it. I love my ipod to bits and use it everyday, everywhere, everywhere i go, it goes. So if your planning on buying a mp3. Ipod is the go, i whole heartidly recommend it, and its the best. lol

Cheers Shane
By the way, people who say the battery cant be replaced, are full of it, i know as ive opened my old ipod up, the batteries are a piece of p1ss to replace, plus you can put larger capacity batteries in there. And there so cheap off ebay.

[blueoval]

Originally Posted by XR8 Guy

Hey There,
Two years ago (About) i brought a 3G Ipod, loved it to bits, although as all ipods, got a bit scratched, nothing ever went wrong with it, battery held its charge like new (even did when i sold it) was perfect. Then for christmas i decided to buy myself a present and get a 5G 30gig Video Ipod. And i love it just as much, this one came with a slidy in case thats fine, and keeps most scractches off it. I love my ipod to bits and use it everyday, everywhere, everywhere i go, it goes. So if your planning on buying a mp3. Ipod is the go, i whole heartidly recommend it, and its the best. lol

Cheers Shane
By the way, people who say the battery cant be replaced, are full of it, i know as ive opened my old ipod up, the batteries are a piece of p1ss to replace, plus you can put larger capacity batteries in there. And there so cheap off ebay.

Thats very interesting to know about those batteries mate. Cheers for that. I feel even better knowing I have the 30gig video iPOD now. _2:

[BlueRaven]

Originally Posted by MrSparkle

do your own thinking

Hey hey hey... I thought it was a fair point to raise, as the people I spoke to in each independant store were very helpful and deal with ordering, selling and repairing (1st hand - one of them told me of they fixed a creative head phone jack issue). Frankly I was happier that they were honest and sold us cheaper units, rather than looking for the bigger profit.

However, I agree with you that anyone looking for an mp3 player should invest time looking at reviews and visiting forums to find out the consumers opinion. I did this in my case (however foolishly didnt feel the need to cover that in my earlier post) and was happy with the results.

Two of my friends have Ipods that work perfectly for them, though I noticed that one is starting to wear out (probably from overuse!) fairly quick - which affected my decision as well.

The fact I chose creative at all has to do with independant thought more than anything else.... but I love the underdog as well (from memory, Ipod has something like 50% of the mp3 player market share...creative has 16%).

Also, in the post mentioned above - it should be noted that if the battery fails inside the warranty period, you should not crack the case open!

A side note too... Although this is often covered, the batteries in hard disk based mp3 players are most often lithium ion batteries. Learn how to care for these. Avoid draining the battery fully and try to have it as charged as possible to get maximum battery life. There is a website somewhere that lists helpfull pointers for getting the best battery life.

[blue fairy]

For me the 20GB Creative Zen won also.

For me it was the 20GB harddrive, replaceable batteries, accessories that came in the box with it requiring no additional purchases (pouch, belt holder, stand, etc),it is made by Creative a well known brand, it runs on any type of windows and the fact it wasn't an Apple, and for the superficial girlie reasons.. it came in black and glows electric blue.

At first I wasn't too sure about the weight of it as it is heavier than an Ipod, but it really has grown on me. It makes me feel like I am holding something.

I find the Zen very easy to use and have no troubles opperating it.

I'm not bagging Apples... just letting you know why the Creative Zen had appeal to me.
Good Luck with your purchase!

[Venomous]

Originally Posted by BlueRaven

The fact I chose creative at all has to do with independant thought more than anything else.... but I love the underdog as well (from memory, Ipod has something like 50% of the mp3 player market share...creative has 16%).

Also, in the post mentioned above - it should be noted that if the battery fails inside the warranty period, you should not crack the case open!

Yeah, thats true, but just in case that were to happen the battery is covered for a year i believe, the whole period of the warranty, so you shouldnt need to, when my 5G arrived, there were a few imperfections i wasnt happy with, called them up, and the next day they came a picked it up and sent me out a replacement. Customer service was great. Should mention i ordered it online from the apple site, but i would say the same would go for if you brought one from a store. Oh and with apple, if your a student, you get 10% off, so i got mine for $400

[Perana]

Me and my GF have both got 6GB iPod Mini's. Both quite rugged units seeing the case is aluminium. Haven't had any trouble with either of them.. Oh and anyone that says iPod batteries aren't replaceable is lying.. They may not be as easy as some others to replace though.

One thing with the new iPod Video's and Nano's is that since Apple have gone back to plastic cases they now scratch much easier.

[xurbanx]

i hear the iriver has good sound quality, personally i have that creative 512mb mp3 player, it plays music and thats all i need it for (:

[Mr Cube]

Ok I just bought a 30gig iPod-- So far so good.. Now the CD ripping starts..

[BuuBox]

At work we've reduced the iRiver H320 and H340 as they're about to become obsolete to $349 and $399. At that price there a much better option than the iPod's (IMO), if you can handle the somewhat clunky interface.

[XR8 Uterous]

Now that you have bought the ipod, good choice i think. Alot of people complain about itunes although i dont mind it, you can use Win Amp with Win Amp Agent and its the same as itunes, i reckon it's alot easier to use too.

[bathurst77]

Im thinking of getting MP3 player just for the car. Plug it into the AUX socket on my BA.

I want one that i can clip/attach to the dash somehow (velcro?), thats not soo big and heavy it will fall off, or be this big ugly/clumsy looking box on the dash, but not so small that the buttons are too fiddly use easily while driving.

Seems pointless to get one holds less tunes then the 6 cd stacker can when full. 6 cds of about 20 songs -120 tracks- would be about 500Mb of Mp3, and I got about 5GB mp3s on my desktop PC, so I would need about 8-10GB storage I guess.

But Im a tight wad so dont want to spend a fortune, so havent found the right one yet.

[blueoval]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

....Seems pointless to get one holds less tunes then the 6 cd stacker can when full. 6 cds of about 20 songs -120 tracks- would be about 500Mb of Mp3, and I got about 5GB mp3s on my desktop PC, so I would need about 8-10GB storage I guess....

Im abit comfused here. I thought the whole idea of getting an mp3 is to save space and fit more music on it. 500mb should hold more than 120 tracks. Even still the mp3 players are cheaper to buy than a stacker and they dont jump imo.

[bathurst77]

Originally Posted by blueoval

Im abit comfused here. I thought the whole idea of getting an mp3 is to save space and fit more music on it. 500mb should hold more than 120 tracks. Even still the mp3 players are cheaper to buy than a stacker and they dont jump imo.

Well I already got the stacker, but Im sick of carrying lots of Cds in the car, so want to MP3 my collection.

I want an mp3 that will play heaps more cds-worth then the stacker holds.
Looking at my MP3 collection, most songs are between 3 to 7 Mb. so 120 songs will be 360-840Mb.
I reckon 8gb would be about 80-100 CDS worth.

[MrSparkle]

That's about right. Don't rip in anything less than 192kbps, because if you do it's a frigging waste of time and you may as well listen to your music through a telephone. I have a personal hatred of low quality mp3s.

[blueoval]

Originally Posted by bathurst77

Well I already got the stacker, but Im sick of carrying lots of Cds in the car, so want to MP3 my collection.

I want an mp3 that will play heaps more cds-worth then the stacker holds.
Looking at my MP3 collection, most songs are between 3 to 7 Mb. so 120 songs will be 360-840Mb.
I reckon 8gb would be about 80-100 CDS worth.

If thats the case a decent sized mp3 with a minimum of 10gig should do the job nicely then? I have a 30gb iPOD and thats is ample with all my albums and photos.

[aimzes]

i went the creative route. its good. i tried to see how long the batt would last yesterday. i had it playing from 5pm till 1130pm and it had only dropped to the 1/3 mark (it may have been about to conk out ive no idea when it had dropped to 1/3). but the best thing was i had only 2/3 batt left when i decided to test it so 6 hours out of that is ok in my books.

anyway the bad thing about it is where the f do you buy accesories for it? i do a fair bit of travelling without a pc so i cant charge it. and i cant find anyone who stocks the travel charger! dead set.

tried harvey norman and d**k smith.

[BlueRaven]

Originally Posted by aimzes

i went the creative route. its good. i tried to see how long the batt would last yesterday. i had it playing from 5pm till 1130pm and it had only dropped to the 1/3 mark (it may have been about to conk out ive no idea when it had dropped to 1/3). but the best thing was i had only 2/3 batt left when i decided to test it so 6 hours out of that is ok in my books.

anyway the bad thing about it is where the f do you buy accesories for it? i do a fair bit of travelling without a pc so i cant charge it. and i cant find anyone who stocks the travel charger! dead set.

tried harvey norman and d**k smith.

You may have to order...depends on what model you have? Harvey Norman will probably order in if you ask them. They told us they will order batteries for us if we need one.

[BlueRaven]

Originally Posted by MrSparkle

That's about right. Don't rip in anything less than 192kbps, because if you do it's a frigging waste of time and you may as well listen to your music through a telephone. I have a personal hatred of low quality mp3s.

I don't go below 160. I see little point in going above 160 with standard headphones. I know I should get better ones, but i've got some 'look silly but sound great' headphones at home.

Most people won't notice a difference through stereo speakers either.

[aimzes]

ill try one of the bigger stores. the bloke i talked to didnt seem terribly interested so i didnt bother asking him to order anything... he just said they only sell the units no accessories.

[big_pete]

can anyone tell me about the Ipod Shuffles?
im thinking of getting a 1gig Shuffle, but i want to know what they are like to use??

[42.57lb]

Originally Posted by big_pete

can anyone tell me about the Ipod Shuffles?
im thinking of getting a 1gig Shuffle, but i want to know what they are like to use??

They are literally a thumb drive with buttons. Over priced considering what they are (and I am an avid apple supporter and will never touch another PC again), for the same money you'd be better with something else (well less money anyway) Otherwise look into the nanos, they are the ticket. Advertising wins again cause I actually want to say that it is impossibly small....

[42.57lb]

Originally Posted by big_pete

can anyone tell me about the Ipod Shuffles?
im thinking of getting a 1gig Shuffle, but i want to know what they are like to use??

http://store.apple.com/133-622/WebOb...e&mco=91FB0479

http://www.apple.com/au/ipodshuffle/

http://playlistmag.com/products/complete/108-detail.php

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